ENGLISH 125D Lecture 6: 9/07 LBH cont
Document Summary
P59 zola"s impersonal description of grandmorin"s body. Death as democratizing; also reinforces zola"s stringent french republicanism. Enthrallment: roubaud owes grandmorin, who exploits severine. Max nordau"s degeneration - argues that just the depiction of the old world with aristocracy"s social excess is decadence. For zola, decadence is found in the behavior of aristocrats. The way zola describes characters/events/environments is superficial. Surface details give account of ppls" motives. Beginning of the psychological novel, w/o moving into the psyche - just observing surfaces, no interior account. Even lantier"s reflection on himself is a clinical account of genealogy, not i feel this etc. understanding the self as an object, removed, like a doctor"s diagnosis. Zola"s prose rarely gets into ppls" heads, though that"s what the novel"s supposed to be about. Provisional title of lbh: sans volunte (sp?) Human activity is shaped by abstract laws. Characters almost automatons, driven by desire (written on their bodies) that shapes their lives.
